IVR - what *is* the point?

As you might have gathered, we're moving house :o)

So there's a lot of phoning around to do, getting the utility bills changed, updating address records and all that. And what's the worst thing about all that phoning? What's the one aspect of customer service that almost everyone complains about? IVR - Interactive Voice Response - those annoying "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" messages that all call centres use now.

Search on "IVR" and you'll find lots of happy people using it. Images such as this, and the smiling operators on the other end. Do they really exist? Does anyone ever look this joyful when undergoing the IVR experience? Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy to select from a list of options, I don't forget what the options were halfway through the list and I don't even mind when the options are so detailed they have to be nested three levels deep. What I do object to though, is when having selected all the right options, the information isn't used! Which seems to be most of the time!

Take United Utilities today. "For billing enquiries, including moving house, please press 1"...next level..."To supply a meter reading, please press 1, to enquire about a current bill, please press 2, to inform us you're moving house, please press 3"...I think there might have been one more level after that, but anyway the point is when I got through to the very nice lady, one of her first questions was "is it a problem with your bill I can help you with?" NO! I just TOLD you why I'm calling...by PRESSING NUMBER 3!! IVR and call systems designers please note. If you're going to ask for information, then at least present the answers to the call centre agent.

BT used to be the worst. The last time I had anything to do with them, which thankfully was many years ago, you used to have to key your entire 20-digit customer reference number into the IVR system. And then 30 minutes later when someone eventually answered the phone, they would ask you for the number again. "I just keyed the flipping thing in," I exploded to one hapless helpdesk jockey at the end of a particularly frustrating hour where I'd had to redial twice to get through. "Sorry sir," she replied, "our system isn't integrated with the telephone system, so we can't see what you put in." Doh!